Victory: Santa Fe City Council Votes Unanimously to Expand Living Wage Law

Congrats to the Santa Fe Living Wage Network and everyone else who worked hard to expand the requirements of Santa Fe's Living Wage law to almost all workers and mandate annual raises tied to the cost of living. When the law was initially proposed, all we heard was doom and gloom from its critics, who predicted job losses and financial ruin if it passed. Those critics have been proven dead wrong, as they have in other places where minimum wage raises have been implemented. Instead of damaging the economy, the higher wages have pumped more money into the local economy, helped small businesses and given many more people additional money for necessities, as well as a chance to have a few amenities in their lives. It's a win-win situation.

From an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Almost all workers in Santa Fe will be paid a minimum wage of $9.50 per hour beginning in January, and they can expect pay increases based on the cost of living in future years, following Wednesday night's unanimous City Council vote to broaden its rules on the so-called "living wage."

The rules formerly required employers with 25 or more workers to pay the minimum wage, but the newly adopted amendments apply the highest minimum wage in the nation to employees of all businesses that require city business licenses starting in 2008.

The other major change to the ordinance ties future wage increases to inflation as calculated by the consumer price index. Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, and each year thereafter, the wage will be adjusted upward with council approval by an amount corresponding to the previous year's index increase, if any.

The amendments to the city's 2002 Living Wage act represent a negotiated compromise between those who originally worked against the measure -- and unsuccessfully challenged it in court -- and advocates for working people. In exchange for expanding the minimum to every business licensed by the city and mandating future yearly increases tied to the consumer price index, advocates agreed to forego the scheduled increase to $10.50 an hour on January 1, 2008 and delay another raise until January 1, 2009.

Mayor David Coss said Wednesday's vote — which was greeted with a standing ovation, whistles and cheers from the audience — was the final chapter in a yearslong community struggle.

"In 100 years, historians and philosophers and poets are going to read the minutes from the living wage hearings and get a lot out of it," he said.